Say Hello to Facebook Monday

Some merchants are forgetting about Cyber Monday, and instead, are focusing their energy on “Facebook Monday.”

This is because a new survey from social commerce solutions provider Payvment reveals that Facebook merchants are optimistic that their storefronts will produce better sales this holiday season. In fact, the F-Commerce Facts survey reveals that 49 percent of Facebook sellers anticipate an increase in sales over last year, while only 13 percent expect a decline in sales.

Additionally, the survey found that 48 percent of Facebook merchants plan to run holiday promotions in order to boost sales. While 34 percent of merchants plan to offer free shipping, 23 percent plan to offer a 10 percent price discount and 18 percent plan to offer a discount of up to 20 percent. Furthermore, the study found that many merchants plan to leverage Facebook ads to capture their consumers’ attention. For example, 42 percent of the survey’s respondents report having used Facebook Ads in the past, and more than 65 percent of those respondents claim that they will use Facebook ads again – due to their effectiveness and customer acquisition results.

Other statistics worth noting show that F-commerce sellers are increasingly promoting their storefronts through other social channels, including Twitter and Pinterest. In fact, 35 percent of merchants use Twitter to drive traffic to their Facebook storefronts, while 20 percent of merchants use Pinterest to drive traffic. Other channels that F-commerce merchants use to promote their storefronts include their company website (32 percent), email (30 percent), print ads (8 percent), direct mail (9 percent) and search ads (7 percent).

According to the study, almost half of the respondents choose to sell on Facebook because it makes it easy to market to their consumers through deals and product promotions. However, 54 percent of the respondents like to sell on Facebook because their customers don't need to leave the social platform in order to make a purchase.

“With hundreds of thousands of small businesses now selling products on Facebook and many planning significant promotions and discounts for the holidays, Cyber Monday could very well become ‘Facebook Monday’ this year,” said Jim Stoneham, CEO of Payvment. “The data also shows that Facebook sellers are continuing to invest in promoting their storefronts via Facebook Ads, as well as offering deals and promotions and aggressively marketing their stores via other social channels such as Twitter and Pinterest.”